by Marie Harte
He was one second away from declaring his ship beyond salvation, with the captain going down, too—when inspiration washed over his deck.
Ohhhh, little geek, payback’s a bitch.
“Glad you’re enjoying the starter course.” He murmured it while wrapping his hand around her wrist. Once he had the clutch secured, he purposefully slid between her knees, widening them with the force of his stance. In nearly the same movement, he guided Charlotte’s hand down, jamming her fingers under her clothes. He didn’t relent until ensuring her digits were thrust deep in her sex. Arousal zapped him at watching the result in her gorgeous blue eyes, a mix of protest and lust at once, in the moment before he directed her fingers back up to her lips. “I hear the second course is even better.”
Her gaze still glittered with conflict. He’d caught her soundly between the two sides of herself. Her good little geek sat on one side, protesting this dip into wickedness. On the other side, naughty Lottie beckoned her to give in to the sexy sin he offered.
Little did she know that the decision was already made. He’d waited two goddamn days for this. Lottie was staying.
“Lick it off.” His dictate was low but stamped with purpose. “Do it for me, beautiful. I guarantee you’re delicious, too.”
Their stares locked through the shadows. Kaden recognized that she’d left his order hanging unanswered, but needed to indulge another instant of gazing at her. Dr. Charlotte Sinclare, bioscience whiz-brain extraordinaire, rarely wavered about anything. The fact that she did now, brought on by being tempted into carnality by him, brought a rush like a lightning blast of immortality, Highlander style. There can be only one—and at the moment, motherfuckers, that’s yours truly.
Good thing he savored the moment. It didn’t last long.
Ohhhh, he’d been a bad, bad influence on the geek. Not even a minute passed before Charlotte took her fingers into her mouth.
Kade gulped. He watched, utterly captivated, as her lips pressed her flesh. She closed her eyes, contrasting her lashes against cream skin. The berries atop her breasts became juicier by the minute. His lungs turned into shallow pockets, laboring to process his body’s cataclysm of lust. Everything was heightened when he leaned and inhaled the heady fragrance of her pussy.
He had to have a taste, too.
Hesitation is no longer an option. It was an expression the guys on the team swapped a lot, when action was the only viable choice left to resolving a crisis. Yep. That about summed things up now.
Giving Charlotte just a small moan of notice, he pressed closer to her. Bent his head to slide his tongue in, following hers as she lapped her own cream off her fingers. Goddamn. The succulence of her skin alone was enough to pump more precum to his dick, but with the nectar from her pussy and the juices from her mouth in the mix, he was drunk in seconds on his sweet Lottie cocktail.
Her flesh. Her tongue. Her lips. He alternated between the three, lapping and sucking and even biting, unable to get enough of her essence. He moaned, tumbling deeper under her spell, recognizing the pieces of his psyche—and probably his spirit—that snapped back into perfect place from at last being with her.
Goddammit.
Dangerous thinking, man.
He couldn’t need her beyond the fire of their physical union. Couldn’t depend on her for anything other than the pheromone bonds that locked them—for now. Physical maintenance that ensured the mental could continue, as well. Nothing was at work here more than basic chemistry. Certainly nothing like real emotion or connection.
It didn’t matter how high his senses flew when she lowered her fingers and turned their kiss into a full embrace. Or how hard his chest lurched when she fanned her other hand against his cheek with intimate possession. Or how perfect the whole damn world felt when she rasped against his lips, “Take me. Please.”
A gentle yes hovered on the brink of his composure. He fought it. He wasn’t her Edward, her Romeo, her Darcy, or even her “main squeeze.” She’d made that abundantly clear by refusing to accept even a drawer in his bedroom, let alone his invitation to be here as they rode out this crazy storm together. Because to her, they weren’t together. And never would be.
“‘Take you,’ beautiful? No. I’m not ‘taking’ you anywhere. I am, however, going to fuck you.”
A shiver pulsed through her. “Oh.” She dove her fingers into his hair, a smile misting her full lips until he hooked his hands around her thighs and yanked her toward the edge of the bench. “Oh!”
“Perhaps that’s what you meant?” He added cavalier edges on his growl before shoving her skirt up. “That you want to be fucked?”
“Oh!” She repeated it as he swiped his fingers over the triangle of fabric covering her pussy. The panel of her panties was soaked, sweet-smelling, and utterly useless thing, gone with another determined rip. Kade flung the lace aside before burrowing two fingers past her wet curls and engorged lips, finding home deep inside the walls of her precious tunnel. “Oh, my God. Yes, Kaden!”
“Then tell me that, beautiful. Exactly that.”
“I—I don’t under—”
“Tell me what you want me to do to you. Let me hear it, sweet geek.”
She slipped her tongue over her lips. “I—fuck me, Kaden. I want—I need—you to fuck me.”
“Where? Right here, in this perfect little cunt? Is this where you want my cock?”
“Yes!”
Her hips began to buck. Kade was damn shocked his shaft hadn’t drilled its way out of his shorts by now but was thankful for the easy snap and slide it took to set himself free. As soon as he did, his gleaming crown found its way toward her pouting entrance, swelling with the need to get as far as he could inside her body. As he pulled his fingers out, he fed his erection in—but not all the way. Not yet.
“Beg me again,” he ordered. “Earn it, Lottie. Plead with me for what you want.”
“What I want?” She dropped her hands from his hair to his shoulders then down to his waist. “No. Not what I want. What I need. It’s you, Kaden.” Remarkably, she broke into a smile as she said it…almost as if she were tempted to thread more meaning into the words, as well. “Your passion. Your touch. Your cock. They’ve been…”
“What?” He was going to regret the prompt. He knew it before uttering it. But he’d just as soon hold back a bull from busting out of his chest than the question from his lips.
“My driving force for the last two days.” Her gaze glimmered as she confessed it. “God help me, I don’t want to need you like this, but I do. And I’m tired of feeling guilty about it—or weak.” Her grip tightened as her stare bore deeper into him. “You’re not my weakness. You’re my strength. You’ve been my strength since you risked going to the lab and finding me that day. And now I need you. All of you. Oh God, Kaden—”
“Lottie. Damn.” It spilled from him in a whisper. He had no more strength to put into it. He had to cling to his first resolve. Basic chemistry. Nothing else. Meeting a biological order. Period.
“Fuck me. Fill me. Please. Please!”
Strangely—or maybe not so strangely—her surrender surged him with the most power. Her desire and trust gave him sexual rocket boots. He wanted to take her to the same clouds—and made him yearn to give her the stars beyond.
The journey started with his cock.
As he thrust fully into her, Charlotte’s cry filled the garage. Damn, could he relate. Energy sizzled through his shaft, surged both his balls then continued through his hips and ass, not stopping until even the hairs on his toes stood straight up. The goddess in his arms wasn’t giving any passes on the impact she delivered. Her breasts jutted high as her head fell back, tendons straining in her neck. Kade didn’t skip the chance to dip himself over her, nipping at both her breasts as he established a hard, brutal tempo with his cock.
“Oh, my God.” Lottie’s whimper warmed his chest as her touch slid around his ass. She grabbed him hard on both cheeks, urging him to drive harder, faster.
&nbs
p; She was everywhere now. Her walls around his cock. Her legs around his back. Her hands claiming his ass. Her scent conquering his head.
Her soul twining with his.
Danger. Danger. Danger.
He didn’t fucking care. Not now. Not in this firework of a moment, perfect and rare, a burst in time that made him smile and draw back enough to capture her lips beneath his. Fuck, she was even more delicious now, an ambrosia like the finest liquor infused with the most exotic fruits, beckoning him to get utterly wasted on her. And damn, did he. Immersed in her body and intoxicated by her passion, he declared himself officially addicted to her—at least for tonight. Tomorrow would take care of itself…or not. He was so damn tired of worrying about it, when all he really wanted for now was right here, tangled with him, where she belonged.
“Lottie.” He was now the one with the entreaty on his lips. “Oh, Lottie.” His thighs clenched and his ass tightened, bracing for the climax that raced at him like an F-18 with both engines ablaze.
“Here,” she whispered, grabbing the back of his head. “Right here. Ready for you. So ready. Please, Kade…”
The jets throttled to full. His orgasm slammed in, so erotically profound, it bordered on pain. He heard his groan on the air but as soon as Charlotte came apart, clenching his cock in the spasms of her explosion, the ringing in his ears took over. His only reality was the seed pouring from him, dizzying and thick, flowing into an ocean of feeling where the only viable anchor was this woman. He didn’t let her go, needing her warm and close, joined to him as nobody had ever been. As corny as it sounded, he barely knew where he left off and she began.
And God help him, he never wanted it to end.
“Charlotte.” It emerged more as a croak but he didn’t have the energy or desire to correct it.
“Yeah?”
Tell her.
Fuck, how he yearned to. Somehow, it felt…right. Brain-altering sex? Yeah, that was a good topic for conversation, right? And damn, he could already envision the sublime smile she’d give him in return, maybe even some soft kisses to show him her appreciation for his honesty—
Right before the lights would shift in her eyes as she began deconstructing his words. She’d cut into his soul, pin back the lining, then dissect the thing until she got to the barest bones of biological truth, spouting some explanation like he’d simply been frying off the rest of his post-coital endorphins, and his little trip into useless sentiment would “pass.”
“Kade? What is it?”
He shoved his features into a mask of good-guy concern. He was a pro at it. The MP job description was just as much diplomacy and acting as it was foot chases and handcuffs.
“Just wondering how you are.”
Charlotte brushed a clump of sweaty hair out of his eyes. Normally, that would be his cue to back off of her. If there’d been any windows in this room, the two of them had fogged them over twenty minutes ago. He had to smell like a buffalo or worse. But before she answered him, she sucked in a long, full breath, then sighed with a smile.
“You’re full of bullshit, squid—but I’ll let it slide this time because you smell so damn good. And gazing at your chest is my Kryptonite. And…I may have some exciting news.”
Her statement brought a weird mix of anticipation and dread. It was easier to push on with, “You didn’t answer me.”
She curled an elbow beneath her head. “You didn’t cop to the bullshit.”
He huffed. “Fine. I had a few other things on my mind, too.”
“Such as?”
Tell. Her.
Sarcasm to the rescue. “Such as how cute you look with sawdust in your hair.”
She tugged on his hair. “Fucker.”
“Okay, I will cop to that.”
Instead of the giggle he expected, she answered him with a surprisingly somber expression. “And now my answer.” The fingers that had been in his hair descended to his temple. “I’ve never experienced anything like that in my life.”
He tilted his head in the direction of her touch. Shit. Was she actually dipping a toe into the pool of sentiment? “Okay.” He drew the word out, nearly turning it into a question. “Is that a good or bad thing?”
She still didn’t laugh. His trepidation officially returned. Her response, finally issued on an unsteady whisper, didn’t help the impression. “I’m…not sure.” As she pulled away her hand and curled the back of it against her forehead, she averted her gaze. His chest clenched as her chin wobbled. “To be honest, I’m not sure about a lot of things anymore.”
“And that scares the shit out of you.” He accepted her silence as confirmation. “I get it, geek.” He brushed his knuckles along her cheek. “I really do. Hell. I called Betsy the other day—”
“She’s your…older sister, right?”
He grinned. “I can’t believe you remember that. Yeah, she’s bossy Bets, but I wished her a happy birthday, anyway.” He sobered his expression. “But when she asked me what was new, I changed the subject as fast as I could. Asked about my nephews, instead.”
“The ‘twins from Hades?’”
“I can’t believe you remember that, too.”
“I love your family.” Panic flashed in her eyes before she hurried to add, “I—I mean if I ever met them—in person—I’d love them.”
Her confession, awkward as it was, moved him. Even Dreah, his unofficial third sister, complained about how nauseating he got sometimes when bragging about Bets, Trina, and their kids. Charlotte’s confession gave him the courage to go for broke.
“Maybe you will. Jake and Fitz turn five next month. Bets is throwing a big bash for them, even hiring a ‘Transformer’ to show up. Trina’s bringing Alaric and the girls down from Sausalito, and Mom and Dad are flying in from Tucson.” Going for broke was a perfect way to put it—and now he paid for it with the five-alarm fires in both her eyes. Shit. “It sounds like a bigger deal than it is,” he amended. “I mean, Bets just usually orders pizza for the kids along with cupcakes for dessert and…” He trailed off as new comprehension struck. The new light in her eyes wasn’t a resurgence of panic. It was the glimmer of tears—
Swiped away by the woman herself in the next second. “That sounds…really cool.”
“If you’re into Transformers and cupcakes.” He’d gone for the snark knowing she’d hate a direct show of concern. Epic fail. Her tears brimmed more. “Lottie? It’s okay. You don’t have to come. Big party, bunch of strangers, screaming kids…just thinking about it makes my head hurt, and—”
She pressed her fingers over his mouth. “It sounds like paradise.”
“Then why are you still crying?”
She turned her face. “Forget it, okay? I’m being morbid and stupid.”
“No. You’re being real. And sad. Why?” Might as well go for the cynicism once more. “Did a clown die at one of your birthday parties or something? Wouldn’t be such a tragedy, you know.”
He earned a watery giggle for that. It faded before she admitted, “Wouldn’t be farfetched, either. The last time somebody remembered my birthday, I was twelve.”
Emotions sprayed him like shrapnel from her shock bomb. Anger. Confusion. Outrage. Sorrow. Fuck, especially the sorrow. It took him several long moments to comprehend the scope of what she’d confessed, to twine the loneliness behind her words into a deeper understanding of the woman he’d labeled as a ruthless intellectual snob three years ago.
She’d never been ruthless. He saw that so clearly now. She’d been scared. To her, stopping in one place for long meant the possibility of feeling. And feeling, in any real form, wasn’t an option for her.
Because it meant enduring the pain he saw in her eyes now.
Because of what?
“Tell me.” Kade didn’t phrase it as an order—though he sure as hell made it clear that he expected an answer.
Charlotte surprised him again by jerking her shoulders in a light shrug. “Not much to tell. My mom and dad were killed in a car wreck when I was
twelve. Drunk driver. Head-on collision. Neither of them felt a thing.”
“Shit,” Kade uttered. “Lottie, that sucks.”
“It is what it is.” She talked all the right words of I-don’t-give-a-fuck, and Kade let her get away with them—for now. She had to know he catalogued every last sign pointing him toward the opposite conclusion, including her quavering chin and unsteady breaths. “Anyhow…my aunt and uncle petitioned the court for custody, which was a no-brainer since my Grams was a little loopy by then, and spent half her time talking to the seagulls at La Jolla Cove like they were players in a Quidditch match.” She released a wistful sigh. “I should’ve learned to like Quidditch.”
Kade echoed her breath with heavier emphasis. “Did your aunt and uncle…were they…”
Her gaze popped wide. Didn’t take the geek long to discern what he hinted at. “Oh, God! No, they weren’t abusive.” The dismissive shrug again. “They simply weren’t…anything. For about a year, Aunt Marie tried, in her own demented way. I was shuttled to lessons with every prominent acting, singing, dancing, tumbling, and performance coach in the greater Orange County, California region. In the end, we were both miserable. When she gave up, she gave up. And Uncle Wren? I don’t think he knew what to do with me—if he was home longer than two consecutive days to think about it.”
He tried but failed to hold in a little smirk. “Dance lessons. Hmmm. At least that explains your fine little grind.”
“Huh?”
“Just a memory that’s fond to me.”
“Oh?” She returned his grin with a touch of girly curiosity. So fucking irresistible, like she’d been that afternoon on the ship…
“One day, you all hit a breakthrough or something,” he clarified. You celebrated by dancing to a Prince song.”
“I remember.” She lifted her hips around his once again, undulating them so perfectly that he moaned. His cock rarely softened completely after they’d been with each other. This time was no exception. “I also remember you being there.”
“Uh—” His jaw clamped as she slid her hips up and down, stroking his length with the wet glove of her pussy. “Uh-huh.”
